The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law on Thursday in a symbolic move aimed as much at healing internal Republican rifts as demonstrating dogged party opposition to "Obamacare."

"No matter what, Americans will not want a politicized agency to have access to their most personal, intimate health care information or be in charge of important health care decisions," Bachmann said.

The 229-195 vote occurred largely along party lines and marked the 37th time the House has voted to repeal or defund the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is now in the final months before full implementation on January 1. Like previous attempts to dismantle the law, the measure will likely go nowhere in the Democratic-run Senate.

For Republicans, who hope to make Obamacare a winning campaign issue in the 2014 congressional midterm elections, the action gave House freshmen their first chance to vote against a law that is unpopular with a large number of voters, particularly conservatives in their districts back home.

"A full repeal is needed to keep this law from doing more damage to our economy and raising health care costs," said House Speaker John Boehner at a press conference alongside a seven-foot, three-inch tall stack of paper labeled "Obama Regulations @theredtapetower".

Democrats poked fun at the latest repeal vote.

"Apparently, the Republicans are opposed to Obamacare," said Representative Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat. "I know that comes as a shock to America, so we need to tell them one more time. Or 37 times, or maybe a 38th or a 39th or a 40th or a 100th time."

The repeal measure was authored by Representative Michele Bachmann, former Republican presidential candidate and Tea Party leader,

Yes, they should just stop the funding for this monstrosity. That would mean something. Republicans are all hat and no cattle.

The only plan that will work is to get government out of health care and insurance. The free market produces the most good for the most people - innovation, lower costs, better service. Private charity is the best solution for the poor, but since people seem to have a fixation on government “helping”, then let there be a government funded subsidy for poor folks to buy health insurance/care.

Anything else the government tries to do is guaranteed to fail.

8
posted on 05/17/2013 8:27:20 AM PDT
by Pining_4_TX
(All those who were appointed to eternal life believed. Acts 13:48)

What the Repubs should be doing is attaching the defunding of critical parts of Obamacare to other legislation. Throwing stand-alone repeal bills at the Senate amounts to a token exercise in futility and they damned well know it.

11
posted on 05/17/2013 8:35:10 AM PDT
by ScottinVA
( Liberal is to patriotism as Kermit Gosnell is to neonatal care.)

House Republicans just held their 37th vote on repealing at least part of Obamacare, which will soon be implemented across the country.

Like the past three-dozen or so votes, this one has been viewed with skepticism toward the House Republicans. And there are questions whether another vote to repeal “Obamacare” will hurt the GOP’s so-called “rebranding” effort.

But Republicans argue, correctly, that repealing Obamacare aligns with what the majority of the American people still say they want. The GOP is playing to an American public that is still largely skeptical of and confused about President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released last month, four in 10 Americans still don’t know that Obamacare is the law of the land and that it is being implemented.
That likely contributes to their skepticism and their desire to at least have it altered, if not repealed in its entirety. According to the same poll, 53 percent of Americans said they approved of efforts to change or repeal the law  which is what House Republicans are doing on Thursday.

If the GOP decided to go further and attempt to defund implementation of the law, as some of its more conservative members have suggested, that’s where the party would likely find itself on shaky political ground. By nearly a 2-to-1 margin, respondents to the Kaiser poll said that they disapproved of any possible attempts to cut off funding.

"No matter what, Americans will not want a politicized agency to have access to their most personal, intimate health care information or be in charge of important health care decisions," Bachmann said.

The goal of Obamacare is to have a politicized agency in charge of health care access.

18
posted on 05/17/2013 8:53:00 AM PDT
by MrB
(The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)

I got a call to donate to Bohners relection, and voting against obama care was his big selling point, I said it was useless, and if he wanted to do something meaningful... to defund the program...not this show boat vote... plus no money from me....

IMO, the repubs blew it when they eliminated, reaching across the aisle, the 1099 reporting of every purchase over $600 (IIRC). They needed to leave that in place so every stupid sucker in the USA could see what a cluster Obamacare was.

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